No information has been provided so far on the causes of the accident.
At least 11 people died this Thursday and 46 are missing, after an accident in a coal mine in Siberia that is added to the sinister list of disasters that hit this sector in Russia.
After the operations carried out on Thursday morning to find the trapped miners, the rescue services announced in the afternoon that they had to “temporarily suspend” their work due to a risk of explosion.
According to the Governor of the Kemerovo region, Sergei Tsivilev, at the time of the accident there were 285 people in the Listvyazhnaya mine, in the city of Gramoteino, in the Siberian region of Kemerovo, where numerous coal mines are located.
For now, it has been confirmed that 11 of them have died and some 46 miners are still inside the mine, “without any communication.
“There is no intense smoke, so we hope there is no fire,” said the official, explaining that the mine’s ventilation systems were still working.
No information has been provided so far on the causes of the accident.
The Russian Emergency Ministry previously explained that 237 miners could be evacuated and that there are at least 45 people injured. Apparently many “were intoxicated by the smoke.”
The local police detailed that smoke began to be detected coming out of the mine at 8:35 a.m. local time (01:35 GMT).
Russian public television showed rescue teams and police working at the scene in the morning in the snow, before the temporary suspension of such work was announced.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “deep condolences to the families of the dead miners,” said his spokesman Dimitri Peskov.
Long list of accidents
An investigation for “violation of security regulations” has been opened.
The mine, which began operations in 1956, registered an accident in October 2004, when a methane explosion killed 13 people. In 1981, another explosion killed five people, according to Russian media.
Accidents in mines in Russia, as in other parts of the former Soviet Union, are often related to a lack of respect for safety regulations, poor management or the deterioration of facilities.
The deadliest accident in recent years left 91 dead and more than 100 injured in May 2010 at the Raspadskaya mine, also in the Kemerovo region, where there are many coal deposits.
More recently, in October 2019, an accident at an illegal gold mine dam in Siberia left 17 people dead. In August 2017, eight miners disappeared after a flood at a diamond mine in Siberia operated by the Russian group Alrosa, the world’s leading producer.
The company suspended rescue efforts after three weeks of searching for the missing.
Beyond the often tragic human losses, some accidents also serve to shed light on the practices of the Russian mining industry, in which exploitation takes priority over environmental issues. (I)
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